Some Definitions

National security

Nation’s confidence that the state has the capability, strategy, and policy to prevent adversaries from using force or duplicity to the detriment of the nation’s interests.

National security policy

Formulation and implementation of strategies to create a domestic and international environment conducive to securing national interests.

National interests

Values of the nation worth protecting and promoting.

National values

Principles and commitments that give a political and social system its particular moral character. U.S. National Security Strategy September 2002

The U.S. national security strategy will be based on a distinctly American internationalism that reflects the union of our values and our national interests. The aim of this strategy is to help make the world not just safer but better. Our goals on the path to progress are clear: political and economic freedom, peaceful relations with other states, and respect for human dignity. To achieve these goals, the United States will:

• prevent our enemies from threatening us, our allies, and our friends, with weapons of mass destruction; • strengthen alliances to defeat global terrorism and work to prevent attacks against us and our friends; • develop agendas for cooperative action with other main centers of global power; • transform America’s national security institutions to meet the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century.

• work with others to defuse regional conflicts; • ignite a new era of global economic growth through free markets and free trade; • expand the circle of development by opening societies and building the infrastructure of democracy; • champion aspirations for human dignity. Some controversial elements in the 2002 National Security Strategy

Continued American hegemony

• We do not use our strength to press for unilateral advantage. We seek instead to create a balance of power that favors human freedom.

• Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States.

• Today the world’s great powers find ourselves on the same side— united by the common dangers of terrorist violence and chaos.... We are also increasingly united by common values. Skepticism concerning international security institutions

• The United States is committed to lasting institutions like the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organization of American States, and NATO as well as other long-standing alliances.

• America will implement its strategies by organizing coalitions—as broad as practicable—of states able and willing to promote a balance of power that favors freedom.

• In exercising our leadership, we will respect the values, judgment, and interests of our friends and partners. Still, we will be prepared to act apart when our interests and unique responsibilities require. Expanded doctrine of preemption

• We must be prepared to stop rogue states and their terrorist clients before they are able to threaten or use weapons of mass destruction against the United States and our allies and friends.

• For centuries, international law recognized that nations need not suffer an attack before they can lawfully take action to defend themselves against forces that present an imminent danger of attack. Legal scholars and international jurists often conditioned the legitimacy of preemption on the existence of imminent threat—most often a visible mobilization of armies, navies, and air forces preparing to attack. We must adapt the concept of imminent threat to the capabilities and objectives of today’s adversaries.

• The greater the threat, the greater the risk of inaction—and the more compelling the case for taking anticipatory action to defend ourselves, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy’s attack. Spread of American values

• Moral truth is the same in every culture, in every time, in every place. Targeting innocent civilians for murder is always and everywhere wrong. Brutality against women is always and everywhere wrong.... We are in a conflict between good and evil, and America will call evil by its name. By confronting evil and lawless regimes, we do not create a problem, we reveal a problem. And we will lead the world in opposing it.

• The war on terrorism is not a clash of civilizations. It does, however, reveal the clash inside a civilization, a battle for the future of the Muslim world. This is a struggle of ideas and this is an area where America must excel. U.S. National Security Strategy September 2010

Departures from Bush Administration

On American military power

• We will continue to ensure that we can prevail against a wide range of potential adversaries—to include hostile states and nonstate actors—while broadly shaping the strategic environment using all tools to advance our common security.

• But when we overuse our military might, or fail to invest in or deploy complementary tools, or act without partners, then our military is overstretched, Americans bear a greater burden, and our leadership around the world is too narrowly identified with military force. And we know that our enemies aim to overextend our Armed Forces and to drive wedges between us and those who share our interests. On international institutions

• Going forward, there should be no doubt: the United States of America will continue to underwrite global security…. As we do, we must recognize that no one nation—no matter how powerful—can meet global challenges alone. As we did after World War II, America must prepare for the future, while forging cooperative approaches among nations that can yield results.

• Today, we need to be clear-eyed about the strengths and shortcomings of international institutions…. Yet it would be destructive to both American national security and global security if the United States used the emergence of new challenges and the shortcomings of the international system as a reason to walk away from it.

• Indeed, America has never succeeded through isolationism. As the nation that helped to build our international system after World War II and to bring about the globalization that came with the end of the Cold War, we must reengage the world on a comprehensive and sustained basis. On use of force

• While the use of force is sometimes necessary, we will exhaust other options before war whenever we can, and carefully weigh the costs and risks of action against the costs and risks of inaction. When force is necessary, we will continue to do so in a way that reflects our values and strengthens our legitimacy, and we will seek broad international support, working with such institutions as NATO and the U.N. Security Council.

• The United States must reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend our nation and our interests, yet we will also seek to adhere to standards that govern the use of force. On American values

• These efforts to advance security and prosperity are enhanced by our support for certain values that are universal…. In keeping with the focus on the foundation of our strength and influence, we are promoting universal values abroad by living them at home, and will not seek to impose these values through force.

• The most effective way for the United States of America to promote our values is to live them. America’s commitment to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law are essential sources of our strength and influence in the world. They too must be cultivated by our rejection of actions like torture that are not in line with our values, by our commitment to pursue justice consistent with our Constitution, and by our steady determination to extend the promise of America to all of our citizens.

• Some methods employed in pursuit of our security have compromised our fidelity to the values that we promote, and our leadership on their behalf. This undercuts our ability to support democratic movements abroad, challenge nations that violate international human rights norms, and apply our broader leadership for good in the world. U.S. National Security Strategy December 2017

National Interests

We must protect four vital national interests in this competitive world.

• First, our fundamental responsibility is to protect the American people, the homeland, and the American way of life.

• Second, we will promote American prosperity.

• Third, we will preserve peace through strength by rebuilding our military so that it remains preeminent, deters our adversaries, and if necessary, is able to fight and win.

• Fourth, we will advance American influence because a world that supports American interests and reflects our values makes America more secure and prosperous. America First

• Strengthening our sovereignty—the first duty of a government is to serve the interests of its own people—is a necessary condition for protecting these four national interests. And as we strengthen our sovereignty we will renew confidence in ourselves as a nation.

• We are also realistic and understand that the American way of life cannot be imposed upon others, nor is it the inevitable culmination of progress. On borders and immigration

• Strengthening control over our borders and immigration system is central to national security, economic prosperity, and the rule of law. Terrorists, drug traffickers, and criminal cartels exploit porous borders and threaten U.S. security and public safety.

• The United States affirms our sovereign right to determine who should enter our country and under what circumstances.

• We will also reform our current immigration system, which, contrary to our national interest and national security allows for randomized entry and extended-family chain migration. Residency and citizenship determinations should be based on individuals’ merits and their ability to positively contribute to U.S. society rather than chance or extended family connections. On American military power

• The United States must retain overmatch—the combination of capabilities in sufficient scale to prevent enemy success and to ensure that America’s sons and daughters will never be in a fair fight.

On American values

• There is no arc of history that ensures that America’s free political and economic system will automatically prevail.

• We are not going to impose our values on others. Our alliances, partnerships, and coalitions are built on free will and shared interests. When the United States partners with other states, we develop policies that enable us to achieve our goals while our partners achieve theirs.

• We will continue to champion American values and offer encouragement to those struggling for human dignity in their societies. There can be no moral equivalency between nations that uphold the rule of law, empower women, and respect individual rights and those that brutalize and suppress their people.